CA-New bill, if passed, will make it next to impossible to hire a babysitter.

[Anti Federalist]

Babysitting bill in Calif. Legislature

Office of Sen. Doug LaMalfa
Special to The Union

30 Aug 2011

http://www.theunion.com/ARTICLE/20110830/BREAKINGNEWS/110839991/-1/RSS

How will parents react when they find out they will be expected to provide workers' compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for…babysitters? Dinner and a movie night may soon become much more complicated.

Assembly Bill 889 (authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, will require these protections for all “domestic employees,” including nannies, housekeepers and caregivers.

The bill has already passed the Assembly and is quickly moving through the Senate with blanket support from the Democrat members that control both houses of the Legislature – and without the support of a single Republican member. Assuming the bill will easily clear its last couple of legislative hurdles, AB 889 will soon be on its way to the Governor's desk.

Under AB 889, household “employers” (aka “parents”) who hire a babysitter on a Friday night will be legally obligated to pay at least minimum wage to any sitter over the age of 18 (unless it is a family member), provide a substitute caregiver every two hours to cover rest and meal breaks, in addition to workers' compensation coverage, overtime pay, and a meticulously calculated timecard/paycheck.

Failure to abide by any of these provisions may result in a legal cause of action against the employer including cumulative penalties, attorneys' fees, legal costs and expenses associated with hiring expert witnesses, an unprecedented measure of legal recourse provided no other class of workers – from agricultural laborers to garment manufacturers. (On the bright side, language requiring an hour of paid vacation time for every 30 hours worked was amended out of the bill in the Senate.)

Unfortunately, the unreasonable costs and risks contained in this bill will discourage folks from hiring housekeepers, nannies and babysitters and increase the use of institutionalized care rather than allowing children, the sick or elderly to be cared for in their homes. I can't help but wonder if that is the goal of AB 889 – a terrible bill that needs to be stopped.

More information on the text and status of the bill can be accessed from my webpage at senate.ca.gov/lamalfa.

[DamianTV]

It seems like every action our politicians take is done with the intent of making the economy worse.

[klamath]

La Malfa is my state senator. I am afraid this is going to pass. California has a habit of passing laws that make the state economy even worse. They even seem to have gone into high gear since the collapse.

[Anti Federalist]

La Malfa is my state senator. I am afraid this is going to pass. California has a habit of passing laws that make the state economy even worse. They even seem to have gone into high gear since the collapse.

Sadly, that looks to be the case.

[amyre]

Or instead of choose institutionalized care (which is a bit terrifying actually) maybe this means that more people will educate their children at home since it will no longer make financial sense for both parents to work, get really pissed off at the government, and become Ron Paul supporters as a result? No, probably not. Nevermind.

[VoluntaryAmerican]

Does this mean they will have to create a new bureau of babysitter police?

This will never work lol.

[Deborah K]

The California legislature is only going to achieve making outlaws out of Californians.

[messana]

I'm glad not everybody is oblivous to these things.


"I live here five days," said Dolma Tsering.

Tsering works 24 hours a day, five days a week caring for an elderly man with dementia in his Berkeley home. His care is paid for by his family. Tsering does not get paid overtime per se, but she and others who work similar shifts through an agency called Senior Helpers make more than $200 per day. With overtime pay, that salary would more than double, which Tsering says would force her client into a nursing home.

"I'm going to lose my job. Nobody can afford that much money," said Tsering.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=8227310

[sam9657]

It seems like every action our politicians take is done with the intent of making the economy worse.

How about this,

For every action our politicians take there is an equal and opposite reaction..... for the worse.

[Bman]

See this is crap because it's a move to eliminate the little guy.

[Paulatized]

Does this mean they will have to create a new bureau of babysitter police?

This will never work lol.

Babysitters need to create a union with a lobby, they have rights too ya know.

[Krugerrand]

The California legislature is only going to achieve making outlaws out of Californians.

exactly.

[aGameOfThrones]

Jobs, jobs, jobs... Never mind.

[VBRonPaulFan]

it honestly looks to be focused at live-in nanny types... no idea why they'd try to apply it to babysitters. that's just stupid, they wouldn't even qualify for full time employment. i *guess* i would be able to see the logic if it was focused on just the people who would spend 70+ hours/week in someones home working, but honestly that is a decision that should be made between the employer/employee, the bureaucrats can fuck off.

[qh4dotcom]

"If you vote and you elect dishonest incompetent people and they get into office and screw everything up well you're responsible for what they have done, you caused the problem, you voted them in, you have no right to complain."

-George Carlin

California is infested with liberals, they deserve the government they get. Too bad the few liberty-minded people there have to put up with this crap.

[oyarde]

Well , it is California , no real cause for alarm , the state goal is for the state to be the only baby sitter . It must be popular , because millions of mental deficiants continue to vote those people in.

[Lucille]

I'm glad not everybody is oblivous to these things.


http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=8227310


See this is crap because it's a move to eliminate the little guy.

Exactly.

Stealing Dreams, Creating Nightmares (http://fr33agents.com/?p=2215)


Mostly they prove that the laws and regulations put in place are not there so much to protect the people as they are to keep the poor from improving their lot in life and prevent competition from challenging the already wealthy and established businesses in the community. It’s a protection scheme designed to keep the rich and powerful safe and the poor dependent on them for work.

[AGRP]

Wouldn't this outlaw parents as well? They never get breaks.

I've stated it before: We should just hand our newborns to the state immediately upon their exit from the birth canal.

[Lucille]

Wouldn't this outlaw parents as well? They never get breaks.

I've stated it before: We should just hand our newborns to the state immediately upon their exit from the birth canal.


We remember the Home of the Infants where we lived till we were five years old, together with all the children of the City who had been born in the same year. The sleeping halls there were white and clean and bare of all things save one hundred beds.
--Ayn Rand - Anthem (http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/texts/anthem/complete.html)

[kahless]

I have a hard time believing your average Californian wants this kind of crap. I believe there is continuing outrage at the authoritarian government in CA but people are too busy going about their lives to do anything about it and expect others to work within the system for them.

Ultimately things will get bad enough that it will force these people to wake up. Unfortunately due to gross voter ignorance and people buying into to the Progressive propaganda some will likely vote for an even more authoritarian government. On the bright side there will be others that will seek statehood for their region.

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

I would like to see the officer say I'm charged with illegal babysitting with a straight face.
Most of the time when I babysat, it was for my neighbor or somebody else I knew. Will it be illegal to watch someone else's kids without compensation too?

[mwkaufman]

The big problem isn't so much this law as how it works with their 8$ per hour minimum wage. So for example this aide that lives with someone that needs their help from say Sunday at 6pm until Friday at 6pm. Technically, that's a 120 hour shift. So to break it down there are 40 hours at the base rate of 8$. From then on, everything is overtime, and the next 20 hours are at time and a half or 12$. Since the rest of the 60 hours is in excess of 12 hours per day, it's now at double or 16$.

Cost per year with minimum wage: 120 hours * 8$ / hour = 960$ / week * 52 weeks = 49,920$
Cost per year with minimum wage and overtime: 40 hours * 8$ + 20 hours * 12$ + 60 hours * 16$ = 1520$ / week * 52 weeks = 79,040$

So say you go over and take care of them on the weekends, from after you get home from work on Friday until after dinner on Sunday, to hire a live-in aide during the rest of the week you have to pay them 80k$ at minimum wage. To argue that 50k a year wasn't a fair wage and it has to be at least 80k a year is pretty insane in my opinion.

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

There's no reason for people to work for less if they want to. You can work for free as charity, or get paid way too much, but nothing in the middle? More government hokey pokey.

You either eat ALL the ice cream, or none at all!

[AuH20]

"If you vote and you elect dishonest incompetent people and they get into office and screw everything up well you're responsible for what they have done, you caused the problem, you voted them in, you have no right to complain."

-George Carlin

California is infested with liberals, they deserve the government they get. Too bad the few liberty-minded people there have to put up with this crap.

Let california burn in it's own self-created hell. Hopefully, the feds never bail them out, their tax base shrinks or altogether leaves the state and their bonding rates go through the roof. These vile band of statists have to experience pain firsthand.